Audience Rating:

TG Themes:

TG Elements:

George returned back to where he grew up still seeking that one place where he fits in. Never did he expect to find himself in a messy tangle of dark magics, ancient promises, and a power hungry hoodoo doctor. Just maybe if his crazed luck can just stay with him long enough, he'll finally find his place under the sun.

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This DopplerPress Kindle eBook also includes the bonus story "The Glade" by Grover

Comments

I probably should have checked the story length before starting to read this but it was worth reading it in one sitting. :-) I love the weaving of celtic and hoodoo faiths together and the whole feel of the rural south that you convey.

Just as importantly, no dogs spirit was permanently harmed in the making of this story!

Thank you for a very enjoyable tale Grover.

"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."

This is part of what has held up the closing chapter of Wild Side. At some 30K words it's pretty long. :) I suppose you are right. Instead of Urban Fantasy, it is more like Rural Fantasy. As for Cooter, well, you can't keep a good dawg down!

I've always found the melting process of America's melting pot of America fascinating. The mixture of European, Native Americans, and the usually unwilling immigrants from Africa made Colonial America a very nitty-gitty place. You can still see those influences in the Mid-Lands and Low Country of South Carolina. From the old dialects/accents to the old graveyards that history can be heard and seen.

Wow... this story was great. The beginning was more than a bit cruel, but it got better and worked out in the end.

That Vodoo magic seemed seriously dark, but then there were those Loa. I wonder what they were about. It would have been kind of nice to learn more about them. Or was this sort of preparation for a sequel?

I wonder what Foxxy replaced the male part of her soul with. I mean she seemed seriously crippled spiritually in the beginning and it wasn't all that much better in the end. It would have been interesting to read more from her POV.

Thanks Beyogi. I perhaps should've spelled it out better. Subscribing to that theory that we're both male and female, Vivian had all the male removed leaving only the female parts. Given time it slowly will grow stronger. That's what the Loa was implying when she said if in time Vivian wanted to partake of their rituals, then she would be welcome. Wendy was much more protected and again I implied that she didn't have all that much maleness to her soul to start with making the removal far less traumatic.

Vodun has its light and darkness. In general terms it is positive, but there are dark sorcerers, bokor, and it was one of those I was writing about.

If I made any mistakes about the religious portions, it was not intentional. Like most things, it can be misused, and if anything I showed how the Loa and others balance the sheets at the end. He had his chance to reform and threw then away.

You being a Low Country girl, I'm sure you got it. That mixture of the modern world, but beneath at its roots it's the same South that gave rise to both good and bad. Maybe I've listened to Charley Daniel's Wooly Swamp once too often. :)

I seriously got into this and couldn't stop reading it until it was done. I gotta admit I'm a bit jealous that I never went there into the voodoo stories. Loved the Loas and that deep south feeling.
*Great Big Hugs*

I did the best I could with the research and from my own very limited experiences. My real inspiration for the Vodun parts were from one of my most favorite books and series. "Chase the Morning" by Michael Scott Rohan, and the rest of that series. I thought he did a great job at showing the relationships between worshipers and Loas in those stories. Plus its a wonderful fantasy universe mixing so many different genre's together.

It's hard to find enough superlatives to describe some of the tales on BCTS. This one has a spine-chilling protagonist, loveable heroines, dialog that never stumbles and a happy, even gooey-sweet ending. All my favourite ingredients. I really enjoyed it. Thanks for sharing it with us. Cheers, Kiwi

I'm rather fond of those gooey-sweet endings too! There's too much bad stuff going around in real life to write about it, although I will admit some stories do demand it. Happily this needed the Disney ending it got. ;)

They say write what you know, but I'll go just a step further and say write what you feel. To stand on land your father and his father had tilled with their own hands watching the sunrise ... There's a connection.

The land does get into your blood. :)
Thanks for your kind words.
hugs
Grover

Category selection is always tough for me. Yes, they do apply to the story, but they could also trigger bad things in unwary readers. Like Poet-Heather says, to really let the happiness shine your characters have got to work for it.

I admit I'm terrible at writing the intro blurb. That's why I usually rely on my tropic sentence to do the job. It is after all the intro to the story. But this time I had to overcome possible adverse reaction to those categories. I'm happy to see that it at least partially worked. :)

Might I ask what part? It's hard for me to pick up on stuff like that since after all I already KNOW what's going to happen. Setting the scene, in a fantasy story, even a rural one, is tough. Many people aren't very familiar with that sort of background.

Spectral puppies would be something to behold. Would you paper train them using the obits?

NO hitting!

I suspect our evil voodoo man will not have a happy afterlife. You NEVER fail a spirit/god you made a bargain with and a spirit associated with death?! Yikes.

Initially the bits about her old family near the end came out of left field but you did set it up waaay in the beginning so I should not have been surprised. Plus his/her estrangement from the family was a key factor in the story.

As to the cursed body mold used on them... Did you ever see a certain video by Lil' Kim? That or you had a Mattel Creepy Critter Maker back in the day.

I'll have to come clean that the laughter I heard at our dear Hoodoo Doctor's end was Geoffrey Holder's as Baron Samedi. No one, and I do mean no one escapes or welches on a deal with the Baron. :) Strange how images and sounds from our childhoods forever influences us hey?

As for that Mattel Creepy Critter Maker I can neither confirm nor deny that such a toy was a part of my childhood. So maybe I did have my share of play-dough and plastic clay. You ever notice how when you mixed the colors they always turned this kinda gray color? :)

Someone caught up in magic who hadn't really believed in it before, A doom hanging over two good people, and their interactions. Good stuff. I also liked that the start of Papa's downfall was a simple nine millimeter.

Never threaten a mama and her baby! :) It's just that baby is going to have to mama's which is not that unusual in todays world although I dare say the details are a lot more complicated than the normal.

Papa was also my attempt at giving my bad guy more character and to explain why he did the things he did to the girls. I guess it worked out pretty well.

As always Maggie, it's the comments from my writing peers that are gold. :)

I have to wonder just what the spirits were that hovered around your writing desk those long hours while you crafted this story, but I hope they were dismissed upon its completion. Now I can go to bed and let the dreams carry me away....

Just one ADHD afflicted muse who loves her caffeine way too much! As for dreams my latest story began as a dream. It was a little disturbing because it broke the fourth wall. You know I dreamed I was in the dream, dreaming. Hopefully it'll be ready for review next week.

Thanks for your so kind words and concern. And of course may your own dreams lead you to your heart's reward.

That was a fine piece of work, with a strong sense of place and vivid characterization. There were a few minor problems -- a couple of verbs that don't agree in number with their subject, for instance -- but nothing serious enough to throw me out of the story.

It seems no matter how carefully me and others go over these tales of mine something always sneaks though. I blame my Southern upbringing and dyslexia. :) No excuses for bad grammar of course since it has to be readable by others, but like so much in my life it's a up hill battle.

I am glad you enjoyed it and thanks again for your kind words.
hugs
Grover